Saturday, January 23, 2016

Tonight's Sky for January 23: Full Moon

Tonight,
the Moon
will reach its full phase, which means that, as seen from Earth, it
is directly opposite the Sun in the sky as seen from Earth and is at
the half way point in its current orbit.

As
for lunar mechanics, the Moon is always half lit. The reason we don't
always see it as such is thanks to orientation in relation to us.
Right now, when the Moon is
opposite the Sun and on the far side of Earth, we can see all of its
lit side, which is why it appears to be “full.” In the coming
nights, we will start to see less of the Moon as its lit side starts
to turn away from us as seen from Earth and heads toward Third
Quarter.